3 tips to help you choose colours for your projects

Hello again! Have you ever struggled with choosing colours for a crochet or knitting project? I'm frequently asked how I go about choosing my colour schemes and so in this blog post I am going to share 3 practical tips to help you make the most of colour.

Tip no. 1.  Play with colour! 

Start by keeping things simple with just 3 colours at a time. Choose balls of yarn from your stash to help you with this or perhaps you have yarn wound round pegs or you could even use paint swatch cards from the DIY store. Look at your 3 colours and ask yourself "Do they go together?  Are they working in harmony?" If you like them, take a quick photo, if not substitute just one colour and try again. 

The more you play around with colours and experiment with what works for you, the easier it will become. Back in June 2017 I wrote an extensive blog post about choosing colours with a little bit of colour theory thrown in too. If you'd like to read that blog post, you can find it here.

Tip no. 2.  Create a mood board

Pinterest is an amazing resource to use when planning projects. You can create a board that saves colour schemes you like and can refer back to (f you like, you can make it a secret board). Try not to overthink it, simply save pins with colour schemes that appeal to you. Once you've saved a few pins have a look and see what they have in common. Ask yourself "Which colours work well together? What colours am I drawn to?" If you haven't used Pinterest before it's a wonderful resource - think of it as a big search engine for looking for creative ideas. Warning: pinning can become addictive! 

If Pinterest isn't your thing, you can always create scrap book pages with colour combinations you find pleasing. Rip out colour schemes you like from the interiors section of magazines, add in strands of yarn, buttons, bits of food packaging, ribbons, photos, paint swatch cards, feathers and other found items. Keep adding new pages with new colour combinations to look back on. (These torn pages were taken from Mollie Makes magazine).

Tip no. 3.  Look to the natural world

Go for a walk outside and bring your camera with you! Take time to notice colours that sit side by side in nature and look good together. If you spot a pleasing colour combination, take a photo! You can even print it and add it to your mood board, helping to build a bigger picture. 

Think of seasonal colours that work in harmony: oranges, rich browns, burgundays in the autumn; pale blues, lilacs and fresh green in the spring. Or consider the colours of the landscape: blues, sandy oranges and yellow at the seaside; a range of greens and browns in the forest. Nature has an amazing colour range - copy it!

I hope you have found these 3 tips helpful. Leave me a comment below or find me on Instagram if you have any questions or want to share your recent colour combinations, I'd love to see them!

Marta xx

Bee Happy - child's scarf crochet pattern published!

Hello, I'm on a roll with the crochet pattern releases this year with yet another pattern published this week! The latest pattern is my Bee Happy child's scarf - a practical, cosy accessory with a fun twist - there's a honeycomb shaped pocket with room for a little amigurumi bee! 

This scarf is designed for a young child, 3-8 years of age. It's inspired by my 4 year old niece who does not like layering up to go out in the cold and I thought the little bee would make putting on a scarf more fun. The bee can go along for all her adventures!

To make the scarf you will need just 3x 100g balls of Paintbox Yarns wool mix aran (50% wool/ 50% acrylic); 1x pure black, 1x champagne white, 1x daffodil yellow. You will also need 2x 6mm safety eyes and a small amount of toy stuffing. The pattern is rated intermediate; the scarf is worked in linked half trebles and the bee is crocheted in the amigurumi style.

The pattern is available from Lovecrafts here. This listing has direct links to the correct colours of yarn sold on Lovecrafts, so only 1 payment required. It's also available to download from Ravelry here.

I designed the pattern at the end of last year and quickly had it tested ready for release in the new year. However, I was holding off for a photo shoot with my niece to show it off at its best. With the current Covid restrictions I can't see her and her family at the moment so decided to go ahead and publish without model photos. I can always rerelease once we do get together later in the year! I hope you like the current photos, I tried to aim for a playful look.

I'm chuffed that I am keeping up with blogging this year too, next post shouldn't be too long,

Marta xx

Recent crochet pattern releases

Hello everyone, I'm excited to announce the release of 2 crochet patterns; my Bandwagon Mitts and my Elsie Beanie. The photo shoots for both patterns were done on the same day and they do go well together.

Last week I published the Bandwagon Mitts design and I'm pleased with the response so far. They are the perfect pair of mitts to wear on a winter's walk - indeed, I wore them to go sledging on several occassions! The pattern begins with a stretchy rib worked as a long strip, next it's joined to make a round and then crocheted up to the fingertips in a continous spiral. A gap is made for the thumb and the thumb is crocheted in at the end. It's rated intermediate level.

You can find the Bandagon Mitts pattern on Ravelry here and on Lovecrafts here. The pattern is available in 6 sizes ranging from child to adult XL and requires between 50g of DK weight yarn for the smallest, to 150g of DK weight yarn for the largest. On Ravelry one of the download options is for a full photo tutorial accompanying the pattern, ideal if you are fairly new to crochet.

Here I am wearing the Bandwagon Mitts and the Elsie Beanie throwing a snowball at my eldest, Niall, who was my photographer for the afternoon!

Yesterday I published my Elsie Beanie pattern. This pattern was originally a collaboration with Crate Crochet Subscription Box in Australia, and the pattern was exclusive to subscribers. I wrote the pattern for DK weight for the box but since then added a 4ply weight version too. Again, it's an intermediate rated design. If you purchase the pattern your pdf will include both versions - you can find it on Ravelry here and on Lovecrafts here and if you're quick you can catch it at the early bird price of £2.50.

The Elsie Beanie is crocheted sideways and has a lovely drape to it created by modified linked trebles. If you haven't tried linked crochet stitches before this small project is perfect for you to give them a try. The pattern is a simple 4 row repeat which will soon become very rhythmic and mindful. There is an accompanying YouTube video which will help to keep you right here (note to self - film in landsacpe next time!). These last 2 photos were taken by Niall back in May 2020 and show the DK version of the hat.

I hope you like these new patterns, please do share your photos online if you follow one (or both!) I do love to see them.

Catch you soon,

Marta xx